NOTTINGHAM OPEN POETRY COMPETITION 2011
RESULTS
First Prize: Reading by Carole Coates
Second Prize: Likeness by C. J. Allen
Third Prize: Entropy and the maiden by Lynn Roberts
Merits: Princess Monrufat Ayelotan; Jo Field; Joanna Hill; Maggie How; Nichola May; Abegail Morley; Cristina Navazo-Eguia Newton; Alfred Todd; Susan Wallace; Anna Wigley.
FIRST PRIZE: Reading by Carole Coates:
he can’t read it and he can read it
he can read bits of it anyhow but it’s hard
so his grandpa reads it every evening
and they discuss the Mississippi River
big and brown and rolling like the Humber
although grandpa says he thinks it must be wider
sometimes he tries to read it by himself
because he likes Huck Finn who has a father
who isn’t there either but there’s a footprint
where someone has stood for a long time
but this is as far as his grandpa has read
so he’s cheating and peeping ahead in the book
here’s a picture – Huck is opening the door
and a man is drinking from a bottle and glaring
his toes are showing through his boots
the man’s dirty and glaring. WHO IS HE?
he thinks he knows who the man is -
it’s tea-time but nobody’s here
he carries on reading skipping and puzzling
and it is Huck’s father – pap, he calls him
he’s crept in the house and nobody knows
…where his face showed; it was white; not like another nam’s white,
but a white to make a body sick, a white to make a body’s flesh crawl
- a tree-toad white, a fish-belly white …
he slams the book shut and bolts from the room
hides by the stove in the kitchen peers under the table
it’s getting darker but nobody’s here
footsteps coming nearer and soft mutterings
a yell of terror from the stove and his mother screams
‘Don’t do that – you could have killed me!’
but it’s all right now and later his grandpa reads
about Huck’s father – yes, he knew he was horrible
pap wants his money and keeps him prisoner
at night there’s a huge white toad which sits
in the damson tree and peers through his window
.
SECOND PRIZE: LIKENESS by C. J. Allen:
Your skin, sometimes like sealskin in
the light, sometimes like eggshell, that
same flat shine.
Your name. Your eyes, mineral
and lunar. Your defencelessness.
Your secret self.
Your soul, a sail glimpsed from the shore.
The drying coastline of your hair.
Your blush, the rush
of chemicals from here to there.
Your sin. The song you’re apt to sing
of anything
and everything. Your coming and
your going. How desire enters
any room
you’re in. Your love of all things meta-
physical. Your voice like someone
planing cedar
in a sunlit wood. Your good
deeds. Your madness, sadness, care.
Your industry.
Your words like rain on leaves. Your sleeves,
your tricks, your kicks, your crucifix.
Your getting in
and out of things. Your sense and your
suspicion. Did I mention your
defecelessness?
.
THIRD PRIZE: Entropy and the maiden, by Lynn Roberts:
I remember when things were small, neatly
constructed: puffed sleeves, seams oversewn, rows
of little pearl buttons, tucks; completely
perfect, sugared with smocking,lace and bows.
Later they began to relax: T-shirts
bright with pictures, graphic with words, logos;
denim-blue jeans and jackets, tiny skirts
patterned with sequins; and then grown-up clothes,
neutral and smooth, with architectural shoes.
Now that time is unwinding, unsticking,
fraying, I’ve detected stains like a bruise
on the fabric, threads where life is unpicking
itself, where seams and hems are coming loose,
holes gape and Hades hides in the ticking.
The Contributors 2011
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NOTTINGHAM OPEN POETRY COMPETITION 2012
.
PRIZES: 1st: £300 2nd: £150 3rd: £75
and Merit Prizes of One Year’s subscription to
‘ASSENT’
Adjudicator: TBA
Closing Date: 6th September 2012
1. The competition is open to anyone aged 16 or over.
2. Poems should be in English, unpublished, not accepted or submitted for publication elsewhere, and must be your original work.
3. Poems should not be entered in any other competition, or have previously been a prizewinner in any other competition.
4. Poems should be no longer than 40 lines.
5. Each poem should be typed on a separate sheet of A4 paper, and must not bear your name or any other form of identification. On a separate sheet of paper list your name, address, titles of poems submitted, and where you heard about this competition. No application form necessary.
6. Entry fee: £3.00 per poem or £10.00 for 4 poems.
7. Any number of poems can be submitted on payment of the appropriate fee. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to Nottingham Poetry Society. No stamps, foreign currency or Irish P.O’s accepted
8.Winners will be notified by post in October 2012
9. Prizes will be presented at a public adjudication in Nottingham on 24th November 2012. All prizewinning poems will be published in ‘Assent’ and a selection on this website. The decision of the adjudicator is final.
10. Entries should be addressed to: The Competition Secretary, 38 Harrow Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7DU
11. No entrant may be awarded more than one prize.
To request further details, please contact us .
